Taishin Financial moves into insurance

By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) said yesterday its board approved plans to acquire the local unit of New York Life Insurance Co for NT$100 million (US$3.3 million).

“The deal, which still needs approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission, is consistent with efforts to boost the group’s presence and cross-selling efficiency,” Taishin Financial spokesman Welch Lin (林維俊) said by telephone.

Taishin Financial has been in exclusive acquisition talks with New York Life since May, Lin said, adding that the US firm has planned to exit Taiwan since the global financial crisis of 2008.

New York Life, which first set up in Taiwan in 1992, posted NT$93 million in net losses in the first quarter of this year, raising cumulative losses to NT$3.76 billion, company data showed.

Total assets stood at NT$78.7 billion as of March 31, while net worth rose to NT$4.34 billion, from NT$3.99 billion three months earlier, company data said.